Football - Clough happy with Rams' lot

Derby manager Nigel Clough does not anticipate much transfer activity at Pride Park this month.

The Rams boss is happy with the squad he has got and plans on sticking with those players for the remainder of the campaign.

Clough may be tempted to "freshen up" the group with a loan signing if he can find the right kind of player, but that would have to be with a view to a permanent switch to the east midlands club.

"We've been asked in recent weeks if we're looking to add to the group we have, but in fairness when everyone is fit, we're generally happy with what we have got," Clough told Derby's official club website.

"We have a set of players here who are improving all the time and we're happy to stick with them through the second half of the season, challenge for a top-10 spot and do our business in the summer - like we did last year.

"In an ideal world we might look to bring someone in on a loan until the end of the season, purely to freshen things up, but we'll look at what's out there. Like when we sign players permanently, it would have to be right type of player because we don't want to disrupt things - and of course they'd have to improve us too.

"Any player coming in on a loan would be with a view to them joining us permanently, we'd hope, because we feel that bringing someone in who doesn't have an eye on the future with us might not work.

"The good thing is we're not panicking going into this window and, like I said earlier, we're generally happy with what we've got."

Highly-rated teenage midfielder Will Hughes - being watched by as many as 10 Barclays Premier League clubs according to Fulham boss Martin Jol - and full-back John Brayford have been heavily linked with moves away from Pride Park this month.

On the subject of outgoing players, Clough added: "That (speculation) is something we're just going to live with over the next four weeks. In some ways it's good to have your players talked about. We'll let others do the talking but we're not looking to let any of our first-team players go, that is for sure."